by Pam Uphoff
"How about with a newly discovered world? Can you identify what band of the Multiverse the world is in?"
"Sometimes. What they've started calling the Hygiea Split is just chaotic – very much a matter of chance which few members of which few species survived. Of course the worlds with exiled genetically engineered people on them are obvious, they all took pets and livestock common to the twenty-second century, and now the animals show that genetic bottleneck. For the Earth Split – that is, stuff close to us, the horse and cattle archives are the most useful. The most fun project is the dino world sampling."
"Fun? Collecting DNA swabs from T Rex?"
She chuckled. "There have been some wild tales told."
Damien thought it over. "I'm not going there without Solstice."
"What?"
"Your experiment. I'll go back to Comet Fall and wrestle him loose from Code. He might be able to keep me alive in dino land."
Helen snorted her disbelief.
"Now, you said something about Worlds—plural—with genetically engineered people? I've been out of touch, tell me all about them."
"Eh, they argue about exiled versus marooned. The One World is usually included in the count of the exile worlds just because the engineered genes have spread so widely. But the true exile worlds, besides Comet Fall . . . "
It made for a long and lurid tale, ending with ". . . and one of the Elf Worlds shows a low incidence of some of the genes. All of us in the industry argue like mad about it. In my opinion, the most likely scenario supported by actual data is the marooning of four or more early explorers. They intermarried with the Elves, and fourteen centuries later a few genes are still hanging about. Some of my colleagues scoff at the notion of interbreeding."
"Ah, the attraction of the exotic. The genetics apparently work. What do the Elves think about it?"
"Oh, we haven't contacted them. The first scouts through stunned some Elves that spotted them . . . and had the good sense to swab them before they withdrew. Damn Disco. Apparently we wrote off the whole branch after the third Elf World, and looked elsewhere for prospects."
Three weeks later he had a permit to import genetic samples in sealed containers, a pass to the Embassy World, and a very expensive hotel room in the Earth Embassy Complex on the World of Embassy. Speaking with a number of the other people from other Embassies, he realized he had a never ending job on his hands. Then he talked to the other company representatives, cramped into the Earth compound.
After three days, he gave up.
Bloody silly. But he still approached the Disco Building with some trepidation. There was just something about the hulking black basalt building . . . Inside, it was all wavy striped sandstone and polished wood. Much less intimidating.
The girl minding the front lobby had black hair with a dramatic white streak through it. "Can I help you?"
"Umm, maybe? I work for a private company on Earth, and I'm going to be doing a lot of biological sampling through Gates."
"Sound like exploration division's kind of thing." A brief unfocusing of her gaze . . . "Go up those stairs, Q is expecting you."
He climbed the stairs to the right, and blinked at the tall brown haired woman. "Oh, Q as in Quicksilver."
"Mr. Malder, what a pleasure to see you again. Everyone's horribly upset by your disappearance, our explaining it didn't help a bit. Are you coming back to Comet Fall?"
He'd seen her so often in Comet Fall peasant dress, it was disorienting to see her in a tailored pants suit and Earth-styled hair. "Explaining . . . Ouch. We always knew we'd been busted. May I go back? I'd like to visit my adopted family. I retired from the military, and I'm working for my sister. She maintains a genetic database of species from as many worlds as she can, for comparative studies. She thought that if I based myself here I might have the best access to new worlds as they are discovered."
"Well, as Disco discovers them. Both Earth and One World keep their Worlds a bit segregated from us. But I suspect you'll still have plenty of work. Are you going to work out of the Earth Embassy?"
"They are trying to be business friendly, but they don't quite carry it off. I was wondering if any of the sections might be designated for commercial development. Sort of like the shops up the Market Diagonal, but not for shoppers."
"Oh, good idea. Let's check with Inso and Xen." She led him across the building and into the front corner room. Xen he knew, the other was Inso, the current Acting Director.
"Are you ever going to get a permanent director?" He couldn't help but ask.
They both shook their heads.
"Nobody wants it, once they realize that none of us take orders worth beans, so it's an empty title involving lots of paperwork. And irate diplomats yelling at him because of what we've done, and generally haven't gotten around to writing up and telling him about." Xen shrugged. "Just as well. This way no one worries about us getting too strong and trying to throw our weight around. What's up, other than all your relatives dander?"
"I need a place to site a business. And live, I suppose."
Q waved at the outdoors, "I thought perhaps we could subdivide some sections. Perhaps south of the Earth Embassy. The Oner businesses can go over beyond the hospital and their embassy, and the Earthers over here. We could split them into ten acre plots and sell them. Any objections?"
"None. It works. Except for the additional paperwork. I need a damned secretary to crack the whip and keep track of all this crap."
Damien blinked at him. "Manager, not secretary, else he or she'll be bothering you all the time. Do you need nice or pretty or young? Aunt Andrei . . ."
Xen choked. "Oh, no. Inso, do you dare hire a battle axe? She was a mole in Karista for what, forty years?"
Damien nodded. "I'll probably hire Max, the third mole. Do you think his wife could come here?"
"Oh sure. And how many wagons and horses?" The laugh lines around the wizard's eyes deepened.
"Uh . . . a riding horse might be handy . . . "
Xen offered paper and pen. "I am absolutely certain a large number of people want to hear from you guys. And ask your Captain Andrews to come by and talk to us. For bringing in a formidable organizer, we could probably throw in a ten acre plot."
"And Vani, Mihaela, and Cordelia can come and practice building on your lot. They're about ready for that." Q put in from behind them all.
He laid claim to a ten acre parcel back a couple of miles, so as to not get crowded by the bigger businesses that were instantly leaping at the offering of land. Why none of them had ever asked was beyond Damien's grasp. But then he knew the Fallen well enough to not be intimidated. Much.
Back on Earth, he bailed Max out of the drunk tank, paid all the fines, and got him dried out by the time he got a Gate pass for him. Andrei he finally tracked down in a tropical resort.
"I'm bored to tears. And no one will hire an eighty-eight year old woman."
"Disco needs someone to manage their paperwork."
"Where do I apply?"
Andrei was formidably dressed for the office, and Max was almost respectable looking when they walked down the diagonal, and found most of the extended family and company camped out and waiting for them.
Jeinah cried all over Max, then marched him off almost out of hearing range before she started scolding him. "Bad enough I've been crying for weeks! Drinking? How could that possibly help?"
Code glared at Damien. "A spy? I've idolized you for forty something years and now I learn you're an Earth spy?"
"Well, that's not the sort of thing us nasty old spies tell anyone."
"Jeff knew." Vani crossed her arms and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her husband, glaring.
"Jeff's a member of the King's Own. And he's a wizard. He probably found out on his own."
"He says you and Max have dropped the occasional note, and may have saved General Rufi's life once."
"Mostly I just hauled freight. There was a bad patch when we were having a running fight with the One Worlde
rs, but after the dragons ate the Action Team, that died down considerably."
"Ate . . . was that when Joe and Mig were killed? And Richie, something happened . . . And they stole Solstice?"
"Yep."
"Huh." Vani looked over at Max and Jeinah. "Is that why you never married?"
"Yeah, well, that and I don't seem to be the marrying type."
Vani huffed at him. "Honestly, Damien Malder! Well, we've brought just about everything you need for your house except the house. And I brought Solstice. Xen said you might need something special, if you were playing around on the dino worlds. And the horse has been miserable, too, and not behaving very well for Code."
"I told him we didn't really need another stallion, so he'd better behave. I sounded so much like you, it hurt. Then Xen brought the letter, and everyone wanted to come."
Damien glanced around, and Code sighed. "Except the Trips. They are furious that you'd just let duty pull you away without even saying goodbye."
"I figured I'd probably wind up back on Comet Fall."
"Well, you ought to have said something. Not just left a note. Bad as Vani."
"Worse. At least I took my kids along. Damien abandoned his."
"They are seventeen years old, and away at school."
"You are still in big trouble."
"I know. So, are you three a triad? Going to build me an office and home?"
"Q said she'd give us some pointers, help us learn." Cordelia looked a bit intimidated as she looked at the flat grassy expanse.
"This is a plan for the sort of thing I want, the main difference being that I want a small apartment up over the open bay where we'll deal with the samples. And I only want one, not a row. And a fence for Solstice. And maybe one of the geldings, to keep him company and in case I can get Max on top of a horse."
"Right. We'll practice with this, and then build Max and Jeinah a house. Disco's got houses for their people, Andrei will probably stay over there."
Damien left them to it, and saddled up Solstice for a bit of exploring. At forty-three years of age, the horse was just as athletic as ever. Genetic engineering, Comet Fall style.
***
A middle-aged looking Helen came to survey his set up, meet the parts of the family still around and bring an index to Q. She and Andrei hit it off immediately. Pair of perfectionists, both with an eye for detail.
And with Xen as an escort, he returned to Karista, corridored to Ash, and visited the triplets. At seventeen the boys were just staring their growth spurts. Skinny arms crossed truculently, the two boys flanked their sister. Her lip stuck out stubbornly as she glared at him. He grinned like an idiot and managed to hug all three of them. Pepi wiggled free and resumed glaring.
"I didn't have time to come say goodbye, or explain. But I was sure I'd be back. It's only been six weeks, you three wouldn't even have been home yet."
"But we knew you'd just gone. That you'd been a spy and been ordered home. What if they decided you had secret information and couldn't ever leave your little village?" Nels on the right.
"What if they decided to mind wipe you?" Ivan on the left.
"Or just kill you?" Back to Nels.
"Or, what if all your caring had just been a cover, and you didn't love us? Never had?" Pepi finished up the quadruple hit with a bit of a chin quiver and a single tear.
"You shouldn't be legal." It took more hugs and talk and lots of time for them to lose that last bit of insecurity. He hadn't meant to do that to them.
In Karista, he rode straight to Nicole’s house. His belated attempt to stall out was defeated by Solstice’s refusal to stop. The damned horse just walked right into the carriageway and up to the front steps.
The door flew open and Nicole hustled out . . . froze.
Damien sat on the horse. They stared at each other.
“Double cold feet. Impressive.” Xen sounded amused.
They both glared at the man. Damien swung down off the horse and managed to climb a couple of steps. Nicole sighed and stepped forward.
“I . . .” What was there to say?
“Yes.” Nicole shook her head. “You should have heard the Outrage! And Indignation! We—the King, Rufi, Staven, and most of all me—had clutched that viper to our chests! And then they said something about Martin probably being a bastard . . . Fortunately Rufi was there and laughed. ‘What? The young Duke who looks just like the old Duke?’ and everyone shut up about him.”
Damien bit his lip. “And Nazar?” Old Gods, my daughter is thirty-five. I have grandchildren.
“She was upset that Uncle Day wouldn’t be here to play with the kids . . . then she looked in the mirror and started grinning.”
“Oh, good. I worried . . .”
“She barely remembers Jek. But her half-sisters! Those girls just weren’t raised right, and their husbands are worse! That whole family . . .”
“And Martin has to deal with them.” Damien winced.
Nicole grinned. “Staven visits regularly, generally just with a few guards, but occasionally he stops by with a couple dozen troops when he’s coming or going from hot spots. Oh, don’t look so worried, the Gold Gang is finally defunct, so now it’s just an occasional wannabe causing trouble.”
And finally she reached out to him.
And promised to visit regularly.
***
Back on Embassy, he was approached by the UEIA, trying to appeal to his patriotism. To spy on both Disco and Comet Fall. At least the One World, Arbolia, and Purple were more straightforward and just offered money. He turned them all down.
***
Collecting DNA from all the Worlds in the Maze was much less fraught. The military grade heavy stun rifle helped a lot. On most worlds.
After a few close dinosaur encounters, Damien joined the scavengers in cleaning up the larger dinosaur’s kills. Solstice’s magic shields were handy for that, but he wasn’t about to count on them for protecting him from the larger dinosaurs. Nothing like a stampede of eight-ton triceratops to convince one to only approach dead carcasses.
The smaller dinosaurs were easy to stun with a normal pistol. And numerous.
The late Jurassic worlds were the most interesting.
One sweep of low brush, and he could search for all sorts of stunned critters, small dinosaurs, early bird types, and some he couldn’t quiet place. The turkey sized feathered critter that was recovering and squirming and cheeping loud protests as he pinned it down with a boot and tried to get a little nick of skin, a few feather, maybe some blood. Its long jaws were well endowed with sharp teeth. “Look, just hold still a minute, you little murder chicken, and we’ll be done and . . .”
Thump, thump thump.
Solstice snorted. Shifting nervously.
“Dammit, all that noise and now something’s coming to eat you.” He grabbed the critter by the neck and hustled out of the brush. Solstice was head up and looking alarmed, and Damien looked over the treetops . . . and met the gaze of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. He grabbed the saddle horn and jumped for the stirrup. Solstice barely gave him time to get his leg over the saddle before he was running for the thicker trees where perhaps the T-Rex couldn’t go . . . which was also the path back to the gate.
A three meter circle. Can that thing fit through? Of course the door into the reinforced concrete room is probably enough to keep him out! And we have to stop to get the door open . . .
He looked at the murder chicken, still squawking. He tossed it.
Yeah, to the wolves with you. Why the hell I kept a hold of you . . .
Solstice slid to a halt and he vaulted off, threw himself at the door and hauled it open. Looked back as Solstice leaped through. Threw himself through the door and aside as the toothy maw was crammed through the doorway.
He scrambled through the gate to find the white-eyed, panicked horse shivering on the other side. He looked back at the concrete box that kept the dinosaurs of smaller size from invading the Multiverse. The critter appeared to be stuck.
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Damien raised his hand to wipe sweat and stopped at the sight of Murder Chicken fluff on his hand. He fished out a sample bag and collected it all. Labeled it. “There might be blood or skin at the base of some of them.”
Solstice snorted and peered through the gate, careful to not touch it.
The dinosaur was gone, but he could see cracks in the concrete. Damien eyed the doorway. ”There’s bound to be blood and skin where it got stuck, don’t you think?”
Solstice gave a snort of disbelief, and Damien hopped back through. He sidled carefully up to the door, edging in from the side, looking and listening. Nothing in sight. He swabbed down the side of the doorway, where there was something that might be blood.
Edged closer . . . spotted the door, flat on the ground. Looked very carefully and cautiously around. One step out, grab the nearest corner of the door, lift and jerk it back.
Nothing tried to eat him. He got a better grip and hauled it through the doorway. He wrestled it up right and leaned it over the damaged doorway.
“Well . . . that not very secure . . .”
He hopped back through the gate, stashed the latest sample bag in Solstice’s saddle bags, and looked around for some deadfall, branches or anything that he could use to brace the door.
The first thing he did when they got back to Embassy was tell Q the door needed to be fixed.
Then he handed the samples to Hellie. “And that is the last Dino World I’m doing.”
His older sister frowned down at him. “But, Damien, think of the science!”
“Think of my neck!”
Her assistants snickered. She’d moved half her staff and equipment to Embassy to avoid all the hassle of import permits.
